Detroit Red Wings right wing Todd Bertuzzi (44) raises his arms after scoring during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild in Detroit, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

DETROIT - The Detroit Red Wings welcomed Todd Bertuzzi back with open arms.

And he didn't disappoint.

The rugged forward, who has one of the best sets of hands in the NHL, scored twice in his return to the lineup after missing the first three games of the season to lead the Wings past the Minnesota Wild, 5-3, Friday night at Joe Louis Arena.

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"I felt good," said Bertuzzi, who was diagnosed with mono in training camp before learning it was just a bad case of the flu that kept him sidelined. "The first couple of shifts were a whirlwind. Everyone was flying around me pretty quick. It took a little bit to get adjusted. In the end I felt a lot better."

Damien Brunner, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk also scored, while Jimmy Howard made 23 saves for the win.

The Wild got goals two goals from Zach Parise and one from Tom Gilbert, while goalie Josh Harding made 22 saves.

"It looks like we play on his line," said Datsyuk, who also collected two assists while skating on a line with Bertuzzi and Valtteri Filppula. "He's the oldest guy on our line and he controlled everything. He played well."

Bertuzzi has five career hat tricks.

"I love playing with Pav, obviously," Bertuzzi said. "I'm very lucky at this age to be playing with a world-class player like that. I enjoy it and I relish it, and I think I do help him a little bit with some room and kind of getting the puck to him as much as possible; and going to the net and all of that. But the pass that he made to Z was - I've seen it before last year - and only he could pull that off."

Two of the Wings' goals came on the power play, off of five chances. They didn't score with the man advantage through the first three games of the season, going 0-for-15.

"We just tried to keep at it, keep it simple, get some pucks on the net," Zetterberg said. "The first one, Brunner came flying on the wing, made a good shot. Pav made a good shot after that."

Coincidently, the Wings also didn't light the lamp on the power play through three games. Their fourth game they did, which coincidently was against the Wild last season.

Brunner got the first power play goal and Datsyuk got the other.

"I think the first one was a good power play goal, it came off the rush," Brunner said. "I think that's what we need. Obviously, Pav's there, that was a nice one."

Detroit's forwards had combined to score just two goals through the first three games.

Bertuzzi's second goal, which came after a nice feed from Datsyuk, put Detroit up 5-2.

Parise got the Wild back to within two goals, banking a shot off Zetterberg's hip as he made his way out from behind the Wings' goal.

Minnesota got its eighth power play of the game late in the third period and failed to capitalize, finishing with just one goal with the extra man.

"Special teams were going to be important this season with the short amount of games," Zetterberg said. "Tonight it was different for us.

"We tried to follow the new rules," Zetterberg added. "It's tough for us to ... it's different levels between games. If you look at our last game and this one, it's tough to know if you touched a glove and get two minutes and sometimes you don't. But at least they were consistent tonight. We knew what level it was but it was tough playing all your career one way and all the sudden you can't touch the other player's glove or you get two minutes."

After a scoreless first period, the teams combined for six goals in the middle frame, four scored by the Wings.

The first four goals, two by each team, were tallied before the seven-minute mark.

Just 13 seconds into a power play that carried over from the first period, Brunner snapped a wrist shot in the top corner for the Wings' first power play goal of the season on 18 tries.

Just 42 seconds later Bertuzzi deflected in a shot by Valtteri Filppula to give Detroit a 2-0 lead.

Minnesota got on the board scoring with 15 seconds left on a 5-on-3 man advantage when Parise beat Howard.

Less than four minutes later the Wild got the equalizer from Gilbert, scoring just as Wings defenseman Jakub Kindl stepped back on the ice after serving a penalty for interference.

Zetterberg gave Detroit the lead back before the period's end, getting Harding to commit before sliding the puck in the open net after a nice cross-ice backhanded pass from Pavel Datsyuk.

Datsyuk made it 4-2 just 26 seconds into Detroit's fifth power play of the game, beating Harding with another wrist shot.

The Wild dominated play in the first half of the opening period, not allowing Detroit of its own zone. They were aided by two power play chances during that stretch and a third later in the period, but could not capitalize in the opening 20 minutes.

Detroit's power play continued to struggle in the first period.

The Wings had 1:30 of a 5-on-3 power play when Cal Clutterbuck was sent off for hooking and 30 seconds later Clayton Stoner was assessed the same penalty. However, Detroit failed to get a shot on goal.

The Wings had two shots over the final 30 seconds of the one-man advantage.